Thursday 17 March 2011

Cash-strapped govt plans to buy Rs 150cr jet for CM



HYDERABAD: Brushing aside observations made by former chief minister K Rosaiah for the purchase of a new jet aircraft, the Andhra Pradesh Aviation Corporation Limited (APACL) has yet again readied proposals for the purchase of a new jet for use by chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy.

The proposal finds mention in the demand for grants of roads, buildings and ports department for 2011-12 placed in the Assembly by R&B minister Dharmana Prasada Rao on Tuesday.

The APACL had two helicopters -- Bell 430 and Agusta Westland 139 (AW-139) -- of which the Bell-430 was destroyed in a crash that killed the then chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy. The APACL has been using the AW-139 to meet the flying commitments of VIPs, including governor, chief minister and Union ministers and for attending to relief works in the aftermath of natural calamities and police emergencies.

The proposal to buy a new jet aircraft was first mooted when YSR was chief minister in 2008, but was dropped because of the precarious financial health of the state.

The state government had announced on April 21 last year, during K Rosaiah's tenure as chief minister, that the proposal to purchase an executive jet aircraft was dropped considering the `economics and operational aspects'. Rosaiah had directed officials not to entertain such proposals as he felt there was no necessity to spend such huge amounts for the purchase of a new aircraft.

The R&B department has provided APACL an amount of Rs 23 crore in the budget estimates for 2011-12 to meet the expenditure on operation and maintenance of the aircraft and also for hiring of helicopter from other sources when the state helicopter is grounded for normal maintenance purpose. 

By
Monika Jain



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